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The Finnish-Argentinian tango project of Petri Kaivanto and Alejandro Polemann.

See also the other recordings of Kaivanto
http://www.equaldreams.com/kaivanto

The different music heritages of all the continents have mixed for centuries in the area of Rio de la Plata and now also Finnish evergreens were thrown there. The outcome is a new Finnish-Argentinian tango. Aires de Finlandia is a unique international collaboration project between the homeland of tango and the distant Finland where it was adopted as national music during World War II and especially in the 1960s.

Singer-songwriter Petri Kaivanto got the sting of tango bee already as a baby. In the high school he started his own tango band which later evolved to a sextet, Los Leotardos, together with the Finnish bandoneonist Petri Ikkelä. This young band was among the first to spread the gospel of real Argentinian tango in the late 80's in Finland.

The producer-arranger, guitarist-songwriter Alejandro Polemann is a versatile musician: in addition to his many projects, he has worked as the chief of Music Faculty in the La Plata University. His regular bands are the folk music group Flor de Enchastre and the appreciated duo with clarinetist Pablo Szapiro.

Alejandro and Petri met in Helsinki in June 2001 and so the idea of the recording was born. Four of the tracks were recorded already in February 2004, but it took until February 2007 until the time was right to do an entire album. The album Aires de Finlandia, vol. 1 ready to be released will hopefully be just a pilot for a long and new kind of a tango collaboration between Finland and Argentina. Besides fresh interpretations of Finnish classics, the tangocaleidoscope of Alejandro and Petri emitted also original compositions, one Argentinian tango in a candombé version and two special cover versions of Astor Piazzolla's songs.

The album will be released in Finland in the end of August 2007. The international version of the album will hopefully be released soon. Twelve of the 18 tracks have already been sung in two languages and the Finnish album includes already some bonus tracks like the Spanish language versions of Tango Pelargonia and tango Täysikuu (Full moon) which has become a waltz. In addition to Petri and Alejandro, cover lyrics have been written by an Argentinian living in Finland, composer-pianist José Sileoni. For the first time Finnish tango can be proposed to an international tango audience in an understandable form.

The master was entirely produced in Buenos Aires and right after the sessions in February 2007, there was a concert in the famous tango restaurant Esquina Homero Manzi. The national radios of Argentina and Finland made programs about the recording and also a "Making of" documentary is being produced. In June 2007 Petri and the original trio with 2 Finnish guest musicians did a minitour in Helsinki, Tallinn and St. Petersburg, where the Aires de Finlandia -project had the honor of representing Finnish tango in the program of the festive year of Finnish Music, organized by the Finnish Institute in St. Petersburg.